Oh Bowl – A very clever idea that could save you hundreds!

The Oral Health Bowl is vet developed product to encourage your pet to lick across the raised rubber tips to help clean bacteria off the tongue. Did you know 80% of bacteria in the mouth is not on the teeth? So cleaning the dog’s tongue may help reduce disease causing bacteria leading to healthier teeth and gums, and fresher breath.

Specially designed with comfortable raised tapered rubber tips to help clean bacteria off the tongue, the OH Bowl ™ can provide the following benefits for your pet:

Puppy Proof Your Home

A lot of people get a new puppy around Christmas. It’s a holiday when they can take a bit more time off work and settle puppy into his new home. Get ready by sorting the house out before the new pup arrives. Here's a few simple tips I can pass on from my own experience.

Put away cleaning products

Take extra care in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. Keep any chemicals safely behind closed doors of a cupboard or high and out of reach, things like cleaning products, soap powders and shampoos. Your pup may just ignore them but better to be safe than sorry.

Remove rugs until your puppy is house trained

You can’t do much about fitted carpet, but if you have any rugs roll them away until puppy is fully house-trained. It is OK to have no-go zones. I kept my pup out of one room which had carpet by keeping the door closed. The rest of the house is tiled and I didn't bring the rug back out for a few weeks.

Don't want shoes chewed?

Puppies love to chew so put away anything you don’t want destroyed. Keep shoes in the bedroom or closet with door closed. I once came home to find a new pair of unworn sandals totally destroyed. Children's toy, for example, can be put in a tote with lid or kept high. Some things can be really harmful if swallowed, so keep jewellery and fishing tackle well out of reach!

Pool Safety

Make sure your puppy can’t access the pool. Even though they may be able to swim, they may not be able to get out. A friend saved her neighbour’s dog from drowning. She heard a whimpering, looked over the fence and saw the dog had fallen in but was too small to get out. Poor thing was exhausted swimming round in circles, probably for hours.

Create a puppy zone

My dog has had his own ‘safe space’ since he’s was a pup which is the laundry. Provide a comfortable bed, water bowl and engaging toys, like treat-friendly balls. It's also handy to have a space like this for when puppy needs some undisturbed sleep from the kids, or when you have trade workers around and you need to keep him or her safely away while work is being done in the home.

Make sure the yard is secure

Puppies can be very small and so gaps under fences and in between palings can be big enough for them to slip through. It's amazing what a small puppy can squeeze through! Get everyone to make sure that gates are kept closed. Invest in those cheap stick on 'PLEASE SHUT GATE' signs.

Enjoy your new puppy! They are lots of fun to have around the house. Please send in photos and tell us a bit about them. We'd love to heard from you.

Oh Bowl Video – A Clever Idea that Could Save you Hundreds

Lickimats – Don’t Feel Guilty Leaving Your Pet Home Alone

We all know dogs love to lick. We also know that most pet owners feel guilty leaving their dog home alone while they’re out at work all day. Guilt is possibly the main reason why pet owners leave a treat for their dog before closing the front door, and find one that lasts long enough can be a bit of a challenge.

Because of this obsession with licking and the need for long-lasting treats, we developed a series of boredom buster Lickmats which encourages our four-legged friends to lick even more.

To explain this licking behaviour, we asked a vet to explain in further detail:

The Benefits of Licking - by veterinarian Dr Mike Woodrow

Your dog's tongue has endless functions. Some pet owners find licking annoying, which, when done in excess, certainly can be. Nevertheless, your dog's tongue is as crucial for his day-to-day quality of life as your eyes and ears.

So, what are the sources of this oral fixation?

• Taste: People/objects can be coated with invisible, flavorful materials

• Hygiene: Dogs like to clean themselves, just like cats

• Anxiety: Pent up stress may express itself as licking

• Wound sanitation: enzymes kill bacteria

• Love: dogs lick to show affection

Yet, the most important reason your dog loves to lick everything in sight is the fact that licking promotes sound oral health.

Every time your dog licks your hand or laps at the furniture his salivary glands produce saliva. This is very important, because saliva plays a crucial role in maintaining optimal health for your dog.

For example:

• Believe it or not, dogs don't suffer nearly as many cavities as humans. This is because canine saliva is more efficient at protecting enamel.

• Your dog's saliva contains antibacterial agents, which is why dogs are often seen licking their wounds. While saliva can aid the healing process, the antibacterial chemicals of dog saliva are no match for the judgment of your trusted vet. Regular check ups are advised.

• Saliva assists in general oral cleaning. So, it may be helpful to view your dog's licking as an attempt at brushing and flossing. The production of saliva keeps the tongue, teeth and gums hygienic.

• Your dog does not have digestive enzymes within his saliva. Whereas the complete digestive process of your dog is done in the stomach. Dogs use saliva to lubricate food as it travels to the stomach where digestion can begin.

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The Perfect Boredom Buster

Now you see licking has many health benefits. So not only are Lickimats the perfect boredom buster, you're also benefiting your pet's well-being each time you leave them with one.

How do Lickimats work?

Each mat surface is designed to trap soft foods for the dog’s super sensitive tongue to hunt out every tasty morsel of flavour. It is also great way to create a treat without over feeding. Just a couple spoons of e.g. yoghurt leaves enough trace of yummy flavour to encourage licking which can last much longer that a chew stick or a biscuit. Even when food particles are not visible, traces of flavour are still present, and enough for a pet to continue to enjoy.

Reasons why all dogs should have a Lickimat:

Medical free way to promote calm behaviour in your pet while home alone or during stressful times, like storms

Repetitive licking is soothing for your pet,

No over feeding because Lickimat makes a small tasty treat last longer

Licking enhances the sense of taste, allowing pet to enjoy just a small amount of food

Helps promote fresh breath by scraping off bacteria and undigested food particles from the tongue

Video – Slodog Feeder

Gulping down food in people is just bad manners, but for dogs it can lead to serious health problems. Many medical issues from guzzling food quickly vary from minor complaints like stomach ache, indigestion and excess gas, to more serious ones like vomiting and life-threatening gastric bloat.

Slodog came about when our old dog used to get severe bloat from eating all his food in 30 seconds. He would walk around the house crying and I would have to put him over my shoulder and burp him like a baby. One day I accidentally dropped his kibble on the floor and he rushed over to eat it. It was a Eureka moment when I saw he could not eat many pieces at once.

After that I bought a tray to use as his new dog bowl and set about spreading dry food over the surface, but that was so annoying. By the time I placed it on the floor all the food shifted and I would have to start again. A better design would be to have small pockets over the surface for the food to sit in and create little portions to eat from. And that was how Slodog was born.

Slodog is specially designed for relaxed no-stress feed time for dogs. Our sympathetic plate design allows your dog to enjoy meal times and to access food without annoying lumps and obstructions. Traditional no-gulp bowls can often make your pet frustrated and lead to them to tip the bowl over to get to food quickly. Slodog is also easier to clean and dishwasher safe.

So slow your dog's feeding time from seconds to many minutes. Works best with dry food. Maximum serve: 2 cups/16oz/500ml.

Video – How Oh Bowl Works

Dogs love licking. Luckily they do as we can capitalise on this natural instinct and get them to clean their tongue. Easier than brushing their teeth and sometimes better than giving them another dental chew which often aren't really efficacious. Most bacteria sits on the tongue and lot of this gunk emits bad odours and adds to that yucky doggy breath smell. The OH Bowl with its mini scrapers in the bottom of the bowl are designed to allow bits of food to get trapped to encourage licking after every meal eaten out of the bowl. The licking action means the tongue makes contact with the little scrapers cleaning it. At the same time the licking action stimulates saliva which helps sloosh the teeth and gums off food particles and also aid digestion.

The Oh Bowl can help reduce dental decay and gum disease, saving pet owners a lot of money. Use the Oh Bowl everyday until your pet's next dental check up. A daily dental care that fits into your busy life!

My dog loves his Oh Bowl and would lick it smooth if he could. We got a special clear prototype of the OH Bowl made to do this experiment. We wanted to see how the dog's tongue engages with the bowl's surface to check how effective it is.

For this test I used one of Mackie's favourite foods - tinned sardines. He actually licked for almost 3 minutes but I cut the video short so you wouldn't get bored.

Innovative Pet Products Smashes Interzoo 2016!

Swollen feet from standing all day and sore throats from talking to so many potential clients from around the globe. That's what happened to us at Interzoo this May and we had a blast. It's a great show to meet so many interesting people, like small retailers, bloggers, designers, employees of huge corporations as well as fellow buddies in the industry.

Interzoo 2016 was the company's first trade show appearance and the launch pad for our innovative pet products, such as Slodog and Oh Bowl for cats. Most products had never been seen by the industry as we deliberately kept everything under wraps until Interzoo. That paid off and we lost count of how many time visitors to the stand told us we had the most innovated products in the show! Everyone loved the concepts, colours and our display.

Years ago we visited a pet show. After looking around all day we were so disappointed that we hadn't seen a single unique item. From that day we swore we would be creative and come up with pet products that were completely different. And that's what we did at Interzoo 2016.

Attracting buyers worldwide, and the attention of many significant players in the industry, it was a really exciting show ofr us with loads of positive feedback. We now have secured distribution in many countries and our products will be launched in September. To find out where to buy products for your pet or how to get products for your store, check our stockist and distributor list. You can contact us for more information sales@www.innovativepetproducts.com.

Anti-Hairball Bowl for Cats

The number one health issue with cats is hairballs which is always an unpleasant issue for cat owners to deal with. Cats love to groom and spend many of their waking hours doing so. Looking under a microscope you would see that a cat’s tongue is covered with tiny hook-like structures. These tiny hooks help remove lose hair from the cat while grooming, but also means the hair can possibly be ingested. Most hair passes through the digestive system with no problem. However, if it stays in the stomach then the cat will be forced to vomit it up.

Hairballs are likely to develop in cats with long hair, like Persians and Maine Coon cats. Cats that shed a lot and who groom a lot are also likely to develop hairballs. For cat owners it is disturbing to see their cat hacking, gagging, retching or vomiting. This is quite common but they can also cause more serious medical issues such as lethargy, lack of appetite, diarrhea, constipation or even life-threatening blockage. At the moment hairballs are dealt with through special formulated food or over-the-counter treatments to help pass hair through the bowel easily. To prevent hair from being ingested in the first place there is no treatment, until now with the Cat Oh Bowl.

So how does it work? The bottom of the Oh Bowl is covered with tiny soft flexible teeth. To encourage licking after every meal, between these teeth tiny particles of food get trapped. As the cat licks any hair in the mouth and on the tongue can get stuck on these teeth. Stopping just a few hairs after every meal can help drastically reduce hairballs.

This photo actually shows hair and food trapped on a Cat Oh Bowl. Being tested by Cinna the Rag Doll, the owner said that she has seen far less problem with hairball in just four weeks. One happy customer!

A Very Versatile Ball Thrower

Following the launch of Throbizz with its exciting collection of compatible pet balls, these new products will be available shortly from good retailers worldwide. Unlike most ball throwers Throbizz™ is the only ball launcher for dogs to pick up any size ball, any textures and many quirky shapes. With its unique flexible fingered and anti-lofting design, Throbizz™ launches forward and further instead of (like most throwers) skyward then forward losing velocity and distance.

Interaction with your pet is so important to you and the health of your. I know if I didn't own a dog I wouldn't go out and exercise anywhere near as much as I do now. And it's fun! Throbizz is designed around the three Fs - Fitness Fun Friendship. Dogs are beneficial to us too keeping us fit, they get us enjoying the great outdoors and we end up socialising with other dog owners in the community. The whole concept of Throbizz is that it is a game centre, not just a ball thrower. Buy different dog balls for night play, swimming or just plain old fetch, but for this you will only ever need one ball thrower.

The range of balls consists of many designs and functions such as Puppy Treat ball, Super Glow, Star Struck Erratic ball, and novelty toys such as Sports Pig and Robot Chicken. We even have a clever range of double packs for puppies, active dogs, big dogs and day and night play. There's a ball for every breed and size dogs. Our balls are made from 65% rubber (except Super-Glow), which in layman's terms means they're non-toxic and really tough. Give our balls to a Staffy and they won't get through it.

The Brand

Innovative Pet Products is an Australian owned and designed brand that brings you an innovative range of quality goods for your pet. We are passionate about pets and created a variety of unique pet accessories to fit into every stage of a cat or dog’s life.

Contact Us

For further information on our unique range of dog and cat products, and to enquire about wholesale and distribution opportunities, please contact our friendly sales team.